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Nanomaterial Functionalization for High Performance Multifunctional Integrated Environmental Sensing

The sensing, monitoring and control of environmental parameters are critical to sustainable development and managing our increasingly interconnected daily lives. Our project unites complementary competencies and laboratories in engineering and materials chemistry. Prof. Beth PRUITT’s Stanford Microsystems Laboratory specializes in design, microfabrication and characterization of microscalesensors, e.g., multiple sensing functions on single devices with small footprint, low power, low crosstalk and high signal integration in a simple process. These chips sense mobility and weather parameters, e.g., accelerations, pressure, magnetic fields, temperature, humidity, and air velocity. Thermal and electrical sensors can be treated to sense chemical products or environmental pollutants. Dr. Denis SPITZER’s Nanomatériaux pour Systèmes Sous Sollicitations Extremes (NS3E, UMR ISL-CNRS-UdS, Saint-Louis, France) Laboratory specializes in the development and implementation of nanostructured chemical sensitive materials to detect different pollutants or hazardous chemicals. We propose to combine our complementary expertise to develop an integrated process for nanostructured sensing materials and electronic devices enabling multi-species, sensitive and selective sensors. These nanostructured chemical “noses” will sniff for contaminants such as carbon monoxide, sulfates, and volatile organic compounds. Students will be engaged in this interdisciplinary research and have opportunities to work across chemistry and engineering in both countries.


 

Academic Year
2014-2015
Area of Study